A new decree is expected in the Council of Ministers on Thursday to provide tailor-made aid to the sectors most directly affected by the few restrictive measures accompanying this pandemic wave for now. These are therefore discos and shows struggling with capacity limits, as well as operators in particular difficulties in tourism, starting with travel agencies and tour operators. At the disposal of the Government there are about 2 billion euros, coming in part from the special funds of the ministries provided for in the Budget Law, in part from the postponement of some less urgent allocations to free up immediate fiscal space. For tourism, we also work with the resources provided for in the Budget Law, an ad hoc fund of 150 million.
In the meantime, the Prime Minister Mario Draghi, at a press conference at Palazzo Chigi, curbed the requests of those who asked for a new Cig covid until March: in January, Draghi recalled, the Orlando reform of the social safety nets entered into force. it also extended the subsidies to micro enterprises in the service sector. However, it has not been completely ruled out that a sort of “continuation” fund may still arrive (but the outlines are not yet clear) to support companies at this moment most in trouble. The dossier is on the table, and is being pushed by some ministers.
The Italian municipalities also asked for help through a letter sent to the Minister of Economy, Daniele Franco, by the president of Anci, the mayor of Bari, Antonio Decaro, in which the most urgent problems affecting the local accounts. In the calculations of the local administrators they are worth an abundant one and a half billion: 550 million, in particular, are linked to the reflections of the expensive bills (municipalities pay just under 2 billion a year in normal times for electricity and gas), for now without umbrella in the case of public bodies, 500 million for municipalities and 70 for metropolitan cities for the so-called “fondoni” which in 2020 and 2021 compensated for the collapse in revenues and the increase in emergency expenses, while the brake on tourism risks in their calculations to bring a new 200 million hole for the non-tourist tax. Finally, another 200 million would then be used to support the subsidiaries, starting with local transport which continues to count a decline in passengers now also obliged to take the super green pass.
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